How Republicans have failed to defund sanctuary cities for a generation

The Trump administration has made it clear since its pullout from Minneapolis that the era of mass deportation is over and the administration will instead focus on criminal aliens. But sanctuary cities, which defend the worst of the criminal aliens, remain fully funded and undeterred well into Trump’s second term, with zero strategy to harness the news of endless heinous crimes committed in these fugitive jurisdictions.

How can it be that Republicans are planning one last party-line bill to fund ICE and aren’t even broaching the issue of sanctuary cities?

Just 15 months into this administration, the central campaign promise is dead.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, there were over 300 sanctuary jurisdictions in 2016. In response to Trump’s rise to power and his threat to enforce our sovereignty, this number rose to 564 by 2018 — an increase of roughly 88% in the first two years of the Trump administration. As of last year, FAIR identified at least 1,003 by May 2025.

After failing to ignore the courts and cut off funding executively for over five years of Trump’s two administrations, the upcoming budget reconciliation bill is the last opportunity to accomplish this legislatively without Democrat support. Why is this not the single biggest focus of budget reconciliation?

You will not find a more lopsided political issue than shutting down local policies that harbor dangerous criminals who invaded our country to begin with. We already know that Republicans have pulled the plug on mass deportations and have no plans to defund or strip sanctuary judges of jurisdiction or pass even minor cuts to legal immigration. Defunding sanctuary cities should be the bare minimum to achieve some of the election promises, yet as of now, they only plan to pass a simple $70 billion ICE funding bill with no policy provisions attached.

To allow Democrats to shut down Department of Homeland Security appropriations and then go through the effort of passing a party-line reconciliation bill just to restore baseline ICE funding would represent the greatest failure of this trifecta on Trump's signature promise of dating back to 2016.

Republicans seem incapable of making the cultural case against mass migration. But what is so hard about beating Democrats over the head every day with stories of heinous crimes committed by criminal aliens harbored by blue jurisdictions? Sadly, there is an unlimited supply of political ammo to use to force legislation that would finally end this subversion of American sovereignty.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Fairfax County, Virginia. Three out of the four murderers caught in Fairfax this year have been illegal aliens who should have been removed.

• Abdul Jalloh, an illegal alien from Sierra Leone, allegedly stabbed Stephanie Minter at a bus stop. It turned out this was completely avoidable. Jalloh had 30+ prior arrests, including rape, assault, and weapons violations, yet prosecutor Steve Descano’s office dropped multiple felony charges against him despite three written warnings from police that he was dangerous. The sheriff ignored ICE detainers and released him repeatedly.
• Anibal Chavarria Muy, an illegal alien from Guatemala, allegedly hacked a man to death with a machete on March 29. This was 100% avoidable because he had already been arrested on assault and firearms charges, but Descano declined prosecution and the sheriff’s office ignored an ICE detainer.
• Misael Lopez Gomez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was charged with beating his own baby to death on Mar 27, 2026. Just three weeks prior, he was arrested for driving without a license. Local officials clearly knew he was here illegally but released him to commit more crimes.

Overall, nine illegal immigrants have been linked to 12 murders in Fairfax County since 2019. Of course, sanctuary policies have been responsible for other heinous crimes as well. Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was charged last month with groping 13 girls over six days at Fairfax High School. Descano, of course, undercharged him with simple assault and then tried to release him on bail. ICE has this man on its radar, but Fairfax officials would easily release him without informing ICE if they could get away with it.

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Next door in Arlington, Virginia, Luzvin Garcia Moran allegedly nearly succeeded in abducting and raping a woman before he was arrested. It turns out he had prior drug, assault, and probation violations, yet Soros district attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti freed him each time.

The rationale for mass deportations has never before been buttressed by this many dangerous aliens, given the number of people waved in by the Biden administration. In the tragic irony of all ironies, just last Monday — amid the DHS funding lapse — Lauren Bullis, a DHS employee, was brutally shot and stabbed, allegedly by Olaolukitan Adon Abel in DeKalb County, Georgia.

Who is Adon Abel? Despite having prior convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism as an immigrant, the Biden administration's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granted him full citizenship in 2022. This was, of course, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1427, which requires applicants to demonstrate "good moral character."

How many Americans will even hear of Lauren Bullis? Republicans are incapable of publicizing all these heinous crimes facilitated by sanctuary cities to force a defund fight in middle of a DHS funding lapse, including when a DHS employee is murdered by one such recipient of Biden amnesty!

Appallingly, rather than building the case for defunding sanctuary cities and prohibiting driver’s licenses for illegal aliens in budget reconciliation, Trump and Republicans are using their waning political capital to pass an extension of FISA Section 702, the very program used to spy upon the Trump campaign.

Ironically, the Trump administration has already capitulated to Antifa by pulling the National Guard out of sanctuary cities and retreating from Minneapolis. According to new data published by ICE, the number of detainees plummeted by 12% since its peak in January. Just 15 months into this administration, the central campaign promise is dead.

The entire rationale for this capitulation is that Republicans would rather focus on criminal aliens. Well, in that case, why have they not publicized the endless list of heinous crimes committed in sanctuary jurisdictions to defund those insurrectionist cities, in the last party-line bill designed to fund the DHS?